The global economy is heading toward a sustained recovery but given the risks of another downturn it is too soon to withdraw stimulus, International Monetary Fund Deputy (IMF) managing director John Lipsky said on Friday."We think that we are on a trajectory toward sustained growth but that the recovery is going to be relatively moderate and relatively sluggish," he said.

Protesters hurled stones and firebombs at riot police near the Algerian Embassy in Cairo on Friday, leaving dozens of officers injured and triggering a diplomatic spat following a crucial soccer match.Several hundred demonstrators took to the streets following reports of attacks on Egyptian fans in Khartoum soon after their team missed out on a place at the 2010 World Cup finals to bitter rivals Algeria.

Major world powers expressed disappointment Friday that Iran has "not responded positively" to a plan for resolving the standoff over its nuclear program or agreed to new talks."We are disappointed by the lack of follow-up" to understandings reached when the six powers met with Iranian officials in Geneva on October 1, they said in a statement after a meeting in Brussels.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said presidential and legislative elections scheduled for January will be postponed, confirming that he has accepted advice not to hold the vote.Abbas, speaking to BBC Arabic, said the Palestinian leadership would take measures to avoid a constitutional vacuum - although he did not spell these out.

The Middle East nowadays seems at the epicenter of most international crises, so the question is how should this chaos be dealt with? Divided and paralyzed, Europe appears to have given up on any involvement either in stabilizing the region or in the peace process itself. Yet it was not ever thus. From 1980 to 2001, Europe played a leading role in the Middle East.

Tens of thousands of Gazans living in tents and damaged homes face a wet, cold and miserable winter as Israel's blockade of the coastal territory continues to prevent the importation of building and reconstruction material.During the last few weeks Gazans were given a brief reprieve from the oncoming winter as an unseasonal snap of warmish.

The United Nations Committee against Torture called on Yemen on Friday to end the widespread torture of detainees and investigate allegations of unlawful killings by its security forces.It voiced concern at reports of grave violations "committed in the context of [Yemen's] fight against terrorism."

Turkey is investigating a suspected plot by Naval officers to attack non-Muslim minorities to discredit the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party, the prime minister's office said on Friday.The alleged plan, one of several reported in Turkish media, could add to strains between the secularist military and the government, which is already at odds with the judiciary.

When government workmen came in a truck to take Ahmad Mohammad's furniture to his new home just outside Cairo, the 32-year-old fisherman was overjoyed: His dream of quitting the slum where he had lived for years seemed to be coming true.However, when he got to a new residential area called October 6, 50 kilometers southwest of the city center, he realized there was a problem:

The Spanish trawler Alakrana and its crew of 36 docked safely in the Seychelles Friday, three days after being released by the Somali pirates who captured them six weeks earlier."We are all very relieved to be back - We cannot say that we were treated badly," said the only Seychellois member of the crew, Wilson Pilate, upon arrival in Port Victoria.

A top aide to Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader on Friday urged the country's fractious political blocs to resolve a crisis over a key election law that threatens to delay national polls planned for January.Sheikh Abdel-Mehdi al-Karbalaie, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Kerbala, told worshippers during his regular Friday sermon.

Italian prosecutors began their closing arguments Friday in the trial of an American student accused of killing her British roommate more than two years ago.Prosecutors outlined the evidence they have presented in the trial against Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

Lifeboats and military helicopters rescued hundreds of people overnight in northern England as torrential rain flooded homes and washed away bridges.Police in the picturesque Lake District county of Cumbria said on Friday a search was under way for a police officer who disappeared when one bridge collapsed under the weight of water.

After years of effort the European Union named its first full-time president and powerful foreign policy chief on Thursday - but handed the jobs to two little-known compromise figures instead of global heavy hitters.Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday congratulated the European Union for creating the new posts of president and foreign policy chief, calling it a "step forward" for EU integration.

"Peace of the heart and mind and peace of society are intrinsically linked. Peace and justice are inseparable as are truth and reconciliation. Peace is for the hungry to be fed, the poor to be sustained, the sick to experience care, the oppressed to be released and the marginalized to have a voice. Peace is protection against violence.

Despite the worst US recession in decades, sales of organic and sustainable products have continued to grow, experts say, with shoppers willing to spend a few more dollars in a bid to become more green. US supermarket sales of environmentally sustainable or "ethical" products - from energy-efficient light bulbs to organic produce - will rise about 8.7 percent in 2009.

Troubled Dubai mortgage firms Tamweel and Amlak would welcome a further injection of government funds as they look to complete a long-awaited merger by March, Tamweel's chairman said.The firms both felt the brunt of the property collapse that hit Dubai last year and have since suffered a dearth of liquidity, absent or minimal property-related income and deteriorating asset quality.

Russia has the world's most fraudulent economy and attempts to stamp out white-collar crime have done little to stop its spread during the global financial downturn, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a survey. Seventy-one percent of Russian respondents to PwC's global economic crime survey said they had been subject to economic crime in the past year.

Rolls-Royce said Friday the market for its super-luxury cars was picking up dramatically across Asia as the effects of the global financial crisis recede."We're fast coming out of the financial crisis and China and India look like they will lead the way out in 2010 on a feel-good factor," Rolls-Royce Asia-Pacific regional chief Colin Kelly said in New Delhi.

The Dubai economy is growing at a 5 percent rate, slower than in previous years but ahead of the most cautious forecasts, the head of a government economic committee said on Friday."Yes we are affected by what is going in the world but we are confident in the stability of the city," Mohammad Alabbar, also chairman of construction giant Emaar, told a World Economic Forum conference in the emirate

Turkish fixed-line and mobile operator Turk Telekom is targeting revenue growth of 5 percent in 2010, driven by both mobile and broadband expansion, chief executive Paul Doany said.Deep economic recession in Turkey forced the firm, which owns mobile operator Avea, to slash its revenue growth target this year to 3-4 percent from an original 8-10 percent.

The global economy is heading toward a sustained recovery but given the risks of another downturn it is too soon to withdraw stimulus, International Monetary Fund Deputy (IMF) managing director John Lipsky said on Friday."We think that we are on a trajectory toward sustained growth but that the recovery is going to be relatively moderate and relatively sluggish," he said.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri renewed on Friday Leba non's commitment to its partnership with Europe."Lebanon has always been the portal of Europe to the Mediterranean and the portal of the Mediterranean to Europe as well," Hariri said."Thanks to its strategic geographic position and historical openness to the countries bordering the Mediterranean.

The World Bank has approved a $300 million Development Policy Loan (DPL) to Jordan to support the Government's medium-term development program in the context of the current global economic crisis.The approval of the Recovery under Global Uncertainty Loan, came during a meeting of the World Bank's governing goard of executive directors in Washington on Thursday.

The Fraser Institute's annual Index of Economic Freedom in the Arab World ranked Lebanon in second place in 2009 among 15 Arab countries included in the survey, up from fifth place in 2008 and fourth place in 2007, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group.The index measures the degree of economic freedom in each country.

The head of a leading Lebanese social justice organization on Friday lamented the absence from the Ministerial Statement any efforts toward reforming the country's sexist nationality law.Lina Abou-Habib, executive director of the Collective for Research, Training and Development-Action, said Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud relayed to the organization his disappointment that out of 30 ministers.

In a video recording Grace Jalkh, 40, admitted to having poisoned herself and her three daughters because her husband was always away and allegedly cheating on her, a well-informed security source toldThe Daily Staron Friday.Jalkh and her three daughters Melissa 13, Madison 10, and Alfreda 7, were all found dead at their home in the Metn town of Bhersaf on Thursday.

Lebanon may see parts of its coastline vanish if climate change continues unabated, according to a landmark report on the evolving environment of the Arab world.The Impact of Climate Change on Arab Countries - a document assembled by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development - warns that an increase in global temperature of just a single degree "would directly impact 41,500 square-kilometers of the Arab coastal lands."

Palestinian children in the camps of Lebanon are losing faith in the value of an education, with record numbers leaving school to work."We are facing a big problem here," said Ray Virgilio Torres, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Lebanon. "There seems to be a growing number of children in the camps that do not think.

Movement (FPM)-Marada alliance, by securing 29 out of 33 seats reserved for the student committees at the Notre Dame University (NDU) elections on Friday.Similarly to every other university in the country, the NDU elections often mirror the sectarian power struggles in society.

During the hey-day of the Phoenician civilization, the trading post of ancient Serepta would have had a thriving artisan community with glass makers, potters and timber merchant selling their wares to sea-farers.Today Serepta is better known as Sarafand - a sleepy run-down village in southern Lebanon with pot-holed roads where no one seems to loiter too long.

A famous Lebanese pop singer, who normally stirs controversy for her seductive dresses and provocative dancing, has now been accused of singing a song with racist lyrics that compares black Egyptians to monkeys.Haifa Wehbe, considered by many as one of the sexiest women in the Arab world, has the minority Nubian community in Egypt.

Pow! Forbes names "The 99" as one of the top 20 pop culture trends sweeping the globe. Shazzam! "The 99" theme park opens. Kerboom! Endemol begins work on an animated television series featuring "The 99" superhero characters. Slam! "The 99" creator Dr. Naif al-Mutawa is described as one of the 500 most influential Muslims by Jordan's Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.

The spiraling violence that has been sparked by the Arab soccer scene is of course deplorable and embarrassing and a whole other list of adjectives that one can come up with.At first glance, the violence and counter-violence appears to be a sign of strong nationalist sentiment, a sign that pan-Arab unity doesn't mean much. The two countries do share a history of bad blood.

The new Lebanese government would do well to put high on its agenda one of the chronic stress points in the country, but one that now shows glimmers of hope of being resolved: Palestinian-Lebanese relations. This is one of the thorniest issues in a country that has been one of the most turbulent in the Middle East for the past half-century.

A political leader's decision not to seek re-election usually triggers fervent discussion about potential heirs. Yet, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' withdrawal from the presidential election scheduled for January 24, 2010, has produced nothing of the kind in Palestine - not because of a dearth of leadership or a reluctance to mention possible successors.